The opening of a large UK naval base in Bahrain is a reward to London for not speaking out against the royal family’s abuses against dissenters, human rights activist Nabeel Rajab told RT. Hundreds of Bahrainis protested the announcement.

The Royal Navy will return to the former British protectorate
after a 40-year absence, UK Foreign Minister Philip Hammond
announced in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, on Saturday. The
naval base will be the navy’s largest center of operations
outside Britain.

Police used tear gas after hundreds of people took to streets in
Sitra, a town near the base, to protest in the wake on the
announcement. Protesters said the move was a form of payback for
support of the repressive regime, which crushed the pro-democracy
uprising in 2011, arresting and allegedly torturing scores of
activists.

“Maybe Britain was the only country that openly supported the
dictatorship in Bahrain and clearly opposing our struggle for
democracy and human rights,” Rajab told RT. “Taking into
consideration that the silence of the UK, Bahrain paying that
[as] an award to them and for that reason Bahraini people are
upset as the information [is] coming out.”

The British authorities say they plan to use the base facility in
operations against the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS,
formerly ISIS/ISIL), which occupies large territories of Iraq and
Syria. However, local activists do not want to see the British
Navy in Bahrain.

“We don’t think that it will help very much the security
because they could deal with ISIS from wherever they are,”
Rajab said. “We’re a small nation, we’re a peaceful nation.
We would like to maintain our peaceful relations with all our
neighbors everywhere.”

“And finally we will have to pay the price of their presence
here. And unfortunately I would say this comes in the blood of
our children. We don’t welcome this base.”

Earlier, the results of elections held in November caused clashes
of demonstrators and security forces. The activists attempted to
block the streets in protest against parliamentary elections
which they see as a farce and a sham. The police had to use tear
gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

Bahrain has been criticized by international organizations for
human rights abuses, however, as the home of the US Fifth Fleet,
it has faced little criticism from Western governments.

“Bahrain’s human rights record regressed further in key areas
in 2013 and the government made little real progress regarding
reforms it claimed to pursue. Security forces continued to arrest
scores of individuals arbitrarily in towns where anti-government
protests regularly take place,” the Human Rights Watch
website says.